Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna will be presenting the first solo exhibition in Italy of Nick van Woert, one of the most original American voices in contemporary art today.

Nick van Woert, Course of empire, 2013 detail

Nick van Woert, Course of empire, 2013

Nick van Woert, Garden of forking paths, 2013

Nick van Woert, Nature Boy, 2010

Nick van Woert, Return to nature, 2011

Nick van Woert, Universal Gym, 2013

The exhibition, which will be inaugurated on 29th May and opens on the 30th, will run until 7th September and is curated by Gianfranco Maraniello. It forms part of a line of investigation the museum has been following since its opening, making known some of the exponents of the most advanced work being done in America today: Guyton\Walker (2008), Trisha Donnelly (2009), Seth Price (2009), Matthew Day Jackson (2011). This reflection and recognition of the artistic practices and the function of the museum are not limited solely to the United States, but have seen the promotion of some revolutionary figures who are fundamental to any understanding of the art of the last few decades: in 2007, an exhibition of Christopher Williams was held in the spaces being closed in the former Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, and this was followed in 2012 by Marcel Broodthaers (MAMbo) and in 2013 by Bas Jan Ader (Villa delle Rose).
Nick van Woert will be presenting a selection of his most representative works on show for the first time in the Sala delle Ciminiere and adjacent exhibition spaces.
The exhibition will explore numerous themes that recur in the artist’s work.
Among these: the dialectic between the environment, moulded by the massive presence of humankind, and nature, governed by chance. This is an area that is strongly motivated by van Woert’s own origins, as he was born and grew up in Reno (Nevada), a town of contrasts between the fantastical architecture of the gambling sector and the harsh reality of the surrounding desert; the conviction that a semantics of materials exists and that every material be a generator of sense in the interaction with human beings and in the relationship with the artist. The interest in
architecture, originating from the family context and his studies, led him to highlight the construction process and the structure of things without dissimulating them; the interest in figures such as Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber), in ‘return to nature’ movements, in groups focused on the preservation of the American West or Luddism, which all share the man vs. machine dynamic and the attempt to change or dissect our way of life; the use of reproductions of classical statues, surfaces that pretend to be sculptures, a symbol of decadence and concentration of fiction, ‘impostors’ that Nick can Woert uses within his artistic dialogue, literally filling them with meaning and making visible these frequently surprising entrails.